Storm
by Trayne
Summary: Pounding rain and fierce winds, a warm body, darkness, a mother's terror, a flash of silver... So many things that violent weather brings to the mind of one Keyblade Master. [oneshot]


I needed to drabble, and because I even bothered to take a look around the forgotten town. It does relate to Eclipse Realm if you can decipher the hints. Also, the weather has been terrifying around here, so…yeah.

Yayz0rz! My first attempt at 1st person! (wow, enthusiasm for pointlessness) Review when you're done?

Disclaimer: KH and other related games belong to Tetsuya Nomura, Square Enix, Disney, and all that jazz.

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Storm

You hear the sound of the distant thunder, see the lightning breaking through the clouds, and immediately run for cover to escape the crushing downpour and destructive winds; nature's impassive judgment has no mercy for neither man nor beast. Even if you find shelter, the devastation is still done, and no more do you take for granted the life you would have so easily complained about, because it's all you have left.

I'm no exception, as my life and the storm that constantly becomes of it are as intertwined as the sky, land, and sea or separation between them.

The memories are starting to come back, more than even I anticipated. Before, I was so quick to remember my betrayals and past crimes, but now I can remember when my actions weren't entirely my fault. I can even remember bits of what it was like before it was just me, Sora, and the island.

I guess it was because of the little ordeal that occurred from me getting myself and Chuya out from the rain that began to assault us. …I really would rather not think about what the sharp contrast of stinging droplets and her body against mine did to me. Not just because she doesn't know what it did to me.

It was a slight feeling of déjà vu- something of storms and a feminine touch. But it was me in someone else's arms… It could have only been one person.

_Mom…_

My forehead pressed against the cold glass of the window as I looked through the blur of water at the drenched town. Looking at all of it from this second-story inn room- the homes that seemed false, the foreboding mansion in its abandoned splendor, and the menacing spires of mountains beyond this town- I was filled a strange sense of dread and… sadness, even though I _know_ I've never been here.

I can admit I feel these things- I learned what true apathy was after meeting Chuya.

And this world has made all my feelings that much more… alien, as I've begun to feel what I don't think I should have felt. I had asked myself upon first landing here, why is _this_ place familiar?

I think this world… was my home before the islands. But certainly not this town.

I still can't recall when I first remembered about my real parents- I had completely forgotten about it until a memory flashed before me in anger after meeting the 'odd-couple' in Traverse Town. It had to have been because of that _wench_- something about the silver of her hair and those eyes of hers.

It was because she wasn't my mother… At the time, all I could remember about Mom was this almost frightening tranquility about her, like she wasn't earthly at all.

But it wasn't all there was to her- during _that_ storm, she had been terrified.

Now I can recall that a storm was the beginning of my life on the islands. It's still in bits and pieces, but I think it was very much like what happened at the islands in what seemed like so long ago… my betrayal…

_It wasn't my fault._

The first storm…

I wonder about my age, but I know I was too young to fully understand what was happening. The images that surrounded me were being swallowed… by darkness…

_My room was soft shades of blue because it was night… It made it all the more aquatic… Mom made it that way, didn't she?_

It was like I was drowning. Even then, the darkness wanted to devour me, and I was far too young to stop it.

_Far too young to control it._

Strange… I can't remember my parents' faces, but I know they were terrified. There was Mom… and with her a flash of silver…

…_Dad?_

I think I had felt resentment at some point some time ago, believing the reason I was confined to the island by that cage of water was because my parents had left me there. Then that bitterness began to wane. I couldn't be mad at Mom.

_She was too much… I could never be angry at her. But…_

Is it because of this town that I'm now thinking of my father?

Evocations of such familiar feelings… sorrow, remorse, anger… Guilt?

The darkness had taken me. I'm sure of it… I _want_ to be sure it. Then there were hands that pulled me from its grasp, arms that held me protectively against warmth.

_Mom had broken through, somehow. And where was Dad?_

If only I knew… It could be the reason why I can only remember pieces of her. What was there to my father?

…_Silver. A presence that demanded something, but now only receives my contempt. He wasn't with Mom. He let the darkness take us._

_She…was the stronger one…?_

My mom found me within the darkness, and everything I thought of my dad vanished with it… Whatever I was supposed to think of him.

_But_ is_ he to blame?_

I don't know if that explains why I ended up on the islands, what happened to Mom…

_Damn it, damn it, damn it…_

"Not hard enough."

In my frustration, I had begun to tap my forehead against the glass, as if that pain would awaken something else in my mind. But my head was already numbed by the cold. Chuya just had to point out my wasted efforts.

I stopped, but said nothing as she came to stand by me, looking out at the town washed out in dull grey, not unlike her eyes.

"…It's more than that other time."

I glanced at her through the corner of my eyes, catching only the mahogany of her long hair and her expression of neutrality. Since being around me, she's begun to show even less curiosity, though now I've become used to answering her unasked inquiries.

It sure beat talking to myself.

"It's a storm," I answered, looking back outside. "Rain is only a part of it; the rumbling sound is thunder; the flashes of light are lightning." Her head inclined towards mine slightly, and I continued before she asked. "It usually means something bad is coming, even though it's just weather. There could be strong winds that can destroy anything in its path, or lightning could strike and cause blackouts or fires…

"It's… Storms always seem different to me because something bad happens every time I'm caught in one. I would think I'd be used it by now…" I closed my eyes briefly, again seeing my mother's nameless face and the terror all over it. "I just don't know. The wind's picking up." Immediately my gaze had settled on that mansion, the gate to it swinging wildly and the shutters rattling violently.

"Something bad is going to happen?" Chuya asked, even though I knew she still didn't understand and probably didn't care.

"Maybe. I'm gonna try to sleep." I stood from leaning against the wall and uncrossed my arms, going through the door frame in the partition that separated the beds from the window and stairs. I flopped onto the middle bed, suddenly feeling tired but nonetheless ready to face whatever my dreams or nightmares held in store for me. I shut my eyes, but could sense when the lights went out a few seconds later.

The storm seemed to be getting worse.

"Get away from the window, Chuya." I didn't want anything happening to her, not when I've come this far. I wasn't sure how this inn would hold up against the fierce winds.

After not hearing anything for a few moments, I sighed impatiently and began to sit up. "Chuya-"

I was surprised to see her standing by my bedside in the near darkness of the room (an independent lamp on the table in the corner still burned dimly) because I had not heard or sensed her move. I think she was going to lay down in the bed to my left, but tripped as soon as I noticed her, and reflexively my hand shot out to steady her. It wasn't my intention, but I had grabbed her wrist and she ended up falling on me, my arms around her before I could stop.

Chuya didn't move; I think she got the impression that I didn't want her to move, and she submitted, like what had happened outside when I was getting her out of the rain. It wasn't the same; I didn't want her there, and I could have let go. But I didn't.

I tensed when I realized this, thinking she was going to look up at me again and ask me another awkward question. To my relief, though, she just curled her legs up on the bed and laid her head on my shoulder (I hadn't bothered to make room for her). I could feel soon after that she had already fallen unconscious, as I remembered that she never really slept so much as let her body rest to recover her magic power and stamina.

After a few minutes of observation, I was intrigued to notice that she slept without any fits- something that had happened only once before. I relaxed back against the pillows, my eyes half-closed as I silently berated myself for using 'my pawn' yet again, even though she wasn't supposed to be anything to me.

As if I could reclaim something I had lost.

Listening to the rain pound and the wind roar, and having this body against mine, I was abruptly brought to another old memory.

We were still young and carefree, and paid no heed to the darkening clouds in the distance. Thinking it was going to be night soon, Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie all headed back to the main island, but in my stubbornness I had convinced Sora and Kairi to stay with me instead of going back just yet.

The hurricane hit before we knew it, curiously making the sea shy away from the beach and bringing in horrible rain and winds. I had never seen water do that before, and now I wonder if it was innate ability I had inherited from Mom that told me that I needed to get away.

_She loved the sea… but didn't care for storms. Terrors from the sky._

I had rushed Sora and Kairi into our secret place, and in the dark and terror and confusion we had thought we had lost each other. I remember crawling through that dark, damp cave, feeling only cold stone until I came in contact with two other warm, searching hands. We all clung to each other as we rode out the storm in that mysterious cave, and I, being the oldest, was glad they couldn't see how scared I was. I had to be brave for the three of us; only I could protect them.

But I think it was them who saved me. We had spent that terrible night in the cave, and when we came out at dawn I was devastated to see our island in the shape it was in, the destruction ranging from the torn up vegetation to the demolished bridges and huts we worked so hard to build.

"_Hey, don't look so down, Riku! We can just build it again."_

"_We have each other, and that's what matters!"_

Sora, Kairi… so full of light while I only saw the dark side of everything. Maybe that's why those two always seemed to make everything right.

Though I would like to think it was because we were all together.

The storm raged on for about ten minutes, then settled down to a constant rain that became dimmer and dimmer as I began to slip into the world of dreams.

Storms come and roar, bring about destruction and darkness. But they never last, and what was destroyed can always be rebuilt, and the clouds will give way to dawn. I have to keep telling myself that.

It only seemed bad when there was only me and darkness… I'd had my mother one time, and Sora and Kairi another. There's another warm body this time, and...

I don't have to think anything of it. This storm will pass.


End file.
